Professor Daniel Weston

MA Oxon, MPhil, PhD Cantab, DELTA

Contact Information

3917-5146

dweston@hku.hk

Profile

Daniel Weston read English Language and Literature at BA level at the University of Oxford, and received his MPhil and PhD in English and Applied Linguistics from the University of Cambridge. Prior to taking up a position at HKU, he was employed at Birkbeck University of London, Portsmouth University, and, latterly, at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). His work takes place at the intersection of linguistics and education, with a specific focus on academic gatekeeping encounters. He is particularly interested in how candidates applying for academic positions – from prospective undergraduates to established academics – are tested and evaluated by their interviewers. This research profile is complemented by other interests in bilingual pragmatics (code-switching), dialectology (World Englishes) and historical sociolinguistics. He is currently collaborating with the University of Cambridge on a project examining the communicative effectiveness of the undergraduate admissions interview. To this end, he is an affiliate and visiting scholar at the Cambridge Language Sciences Interdisciplinary Research Centre, as well as an advisor and contributor at the Anglia Ruskin Research Centre for Intercultural and Multilingual Studies (ARRCIMS), and a member of the SOAS Regional Advisory Committee of the Global Council on Anthropological Linguistics.

Publications

Books

Weston, Daniel. (2026) Language and Culture in Undergraduate Admissions Interviews. Cambridge: CUP. In press.

INTERNATIONAL REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES

Weston, Daniel. (2025) “Telling the China Story Well” in Cambridge undergraduate admissions interviews. Language and Communication, vol. 104, 50-65

Weston, Daniel, & Wright, Laura. (2025) Gibraltar’s streetnames: an eighteenth-century Western Mediterranean spatial practice of civilian fort-servicers. Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics, 11(1), 29–68.

Weston, Daniel. (2025) The topicalization of culture in Cambridge undergraduate admissions interviews. Multilingua, 44(3).

Weston, Daniel; Tranekjær, Louise. (2023) Architecture Admissions Interviews at the University of Cambridge: Analysis and Experience. Journal of Pragmatics. vol. 213.

Weston, Daniel. (2022) Gatekeeping EpiSTEMic territories: Disciplinary requirements in Engineering and Natural Sciences undergraduate admissions interviews at the University of Cambridge. Linguistics and Education. vol. 69.

Weston, Daniel. (2021) Gatekeeping and linguistic capital: a case study of the Cambridge University undergraduate admissions interview. Journal of Pragmatics. vol. 176.

Weston, Daniel. (2017) A(nother) day in the life of a purist. Anglicisms in the speech of Norwegian university students. Scandinavian Studies. vol. 89 (1).

Weston, Daniel. (2016) “Bits”, “Chunks” and “Channel-switching”: Perceptions of Cantonese-English code-switching. Journal of Chinese Linguistics. vol. 44 (2).

Gardner-Chloros, Penelope; Weston, Daniel. (2015) Code-switching and Multilingualism in Literature. Language and Literature. vol. 24 (3).

Weston, Daniel. (2015) The lesser of two evils: Atypical trajectories in English dialect evolution. Journal of Sociolinguistics. vol. 19 (5).

Weston, Daniel; Gardner-Chloros, Penelope. (2015) Mind the Gap: what code-switching in literature can teach us about code-switching. Language and Literature. vol. 24 (3).

Weston, Daniel. (2013) Code-switching variation in Gibraltar. International Journal of Bilingualism. vol. 17 (1).

Weston, Daniel. (2011) Gibraltar’s position in the Dynamic Model of Postcolonial English. English World-Wide. vol. 32 (3).

SPECIAL ISSUE

Weston, Daniel; Gardner-Chloros, Penelope. (2015) Code-switching in Literature. Language and Literature. Vol. 24 (3).

BOOK CHAPTERS

Weston, Daniel; Wright, Laura. (2026) Code-switching and multilingual practices. In B. Drinka, T. Nevalainen & G. Rutten (eds.), Handbook of Historical Sociolinguistics. Berlin & Boston: Mouton de Gruyter. Forthcoming.

Weston, Daniel; Wright, Laura. (2026) The origins and spatial diffusion of ‘Seven Turn Street’ In A. Enrique-Arias, C de Benito Moreno & F. del Barrio de la Rosa (eds.), On the Spatial Diffusion of Linguistic Changes: New Methods and Theoretical Perspectives. Berlin & Boston: Mouton de Gruyter. In press.

PEDAGOGICAL TEXTBOOKS

Weston, D.; Bjertnes, H.; Henry, J.S.; Lokuge, N.S.; Nygaard-Jok, S.; Raustøl, S.P.; Stensli, Ø, G. (2021) Scope 1: English studies for 16-18 year olds. Oslo: Aschehoug forlag.

Weston, D.; Burner, T.; Carlsen, E.; Henry, J.S.; Kagge, J.; Lokuge, N.S.; Raustøl, S.P. (2017) Global visions: English studies for 16-18 year olds. Oslo: Aschehoug forlag.